U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury released the June edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard Thursday. It paints a picture of a housing market that is improving but still subject to ebbs and flows of the broader economy.

“The June Housing Scorecard shows the housing market continues to make progress as we move into the summer months,” said HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Katherine O’Regan. “Sales of new and existing homes are up, equity continues to grow, and foreclosures starts continue trending down. While these are all signs of a healthy recovery, given the severity of the housing crisis, we must stay committed to helping homeowners.”

The report echoed many reports of recent months that foreclosures are down, both from the previous month and year-over-year. Foreclosure starts are down 32 percent from this point last year, falling to their lowest level since 2005. Likewise, foreclosure completions are also down to an 82 month low, dropping 27 percent from last year

The report emphasized the steps that the government has taken to ensure that homeowners are as insulated as possible from the treat of foreclosure. All in all, the report contends, more than 8.5 million mortgage modification and other forms of mortgage assistance arrangements were completed between April 2009 and the end of May 2014 through citizens taking advantage of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), and other programs.

This only seems fair. It also means that the lender will not be forced to add anyone to the mortgage it just means that the lender will be encouraged to. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

When a borrower dies, the passing of property to the remaining family members can be a complicated process. Even if there are no issue with the borrower’s estate there can be issues transferring the mortgage to a party that had no previous relationship with the servicer.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued guidance Tuesday aimed at making it easier for surviving family members who have inherited a property due the death of a loved one to be added to the mortgage, allowing them to seek modification or refinance and avoid foreclosure.

Specifically, the Bureau ruled that the heir may be added to the mortgage without triggering the CFPB’s Ability to Pay Rule.

“Losing a loved one should not mean also losing your home. Today’s interpretive rule makes it clear that when family members inherit property, they can take over the mortgage without jumping through unnecessary hoops,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “This gives heirs an opportunity to work with the lender to pay off the loan or seek a loan modification.”

The Ability to Pay Rule took effect in January of 2014 and requires lenders to make a good faith effort to ensure that the borrower is actually has the ability to make payments on the loan that they are applying for. The rule purports to ward off predatory lending practices.

The one number that is never published in these reports is the amount of money that the US Taxpayers paid out for all this “success”. The last amount found was $2.5 Billion dating from around the end of 2013. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed nearly 3.2 million foreclosure prevention actions since the start of the government’s conservatorship of the two companies in 2008. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’sForeclosure Prevention Report, 88,000 actions were performed in the first quarter of 2014 alone.

The agency found that foreclosure prevention actions in Q1 allowed 2.6 million borrowers to remain in their homes, while 1.6 million borrowers received permanent loan modifications.

“There were nearly 54,700 permanent loan modifications in the first quarter, bringing the total number of permanent modifications to more than 1.6 million since conservatorship,” FHFA said. “In addition, the Enterprises completed approximately 16,100 repayment plans and 2,900 forbearance plans to help delinquent borrowers during the quarter.”

Properties currently utilizing the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) totaled 431,000 in the first quarter of 2014.

Of all permanent loan modifications in the first quarter, 42 percent reduced monthly homeowner payments by over 30 percent. “Approximately 27 percent of borrowers who received permanent loan modifications during the quarter had portions of their mortgage balance forborne,” FHFA said.

The FHFA found that approximately 14,900 short sales and deeds-in-lieu were completed during the quarter, bringing the total to more than 566,800 since the start of the conservatorship.

This is very good news for the housing industry. More people paying the mortgage payment on time with less foreclosures is always good. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

Mortgage performance is on the rise, and foreclosures are on the decline at the nation’s largest banks, according to the first-quarter Mortgage Metrics Report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Representing 48 percent of outstanding first-lien residential mortgages, the OCC report includes data on mortgages at the nation’s seven largest servicers, based on portfolio size, and one federal savings association.

The percentage of current, performing mortgages rose to 93.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, up from 91.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and from 90.2 percent a year ago, according to the OCC. The first quarter marks the sixth straight quarter of improvement in loan performance, according to OCC data.

At the same time, the number of loans in some stage of the foreclosure process at the institutions declined 52.3 percent over the year to the lowest level the OCC has recorded since September 2008. About 1.8 percent of the loans are in foreclosure as of the end of the first quarter.

The number of foreclosure starts in the first quarter is down 49.1 percent from the start of the year, while the number of foreclosures completed in the first quarter is down 33.9 percent from a year ago.

The OCC attributes declining foreclosures to a few factors, including “improved economic conditions, aggressive foreclosure prevention assistance, and the transfer of loans to servicers outside the reporting banks and thrift.”

This is a sign that home prices have gone up enough so that it makes financial good senses to finally sell the houses that the banks have been rat holing because they were too far underwater. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

Black Knight Financial Services released its “First Look” at May Mortgage data, which found that foreclosure inventory declined to its lowest level since July 2008. As a percentage of total inventory, foreclosure pre-sale inventory is 1.91 percent, down 5.56 percent month-over month.

The percentage of total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory is down 37.23 percent year-over-year.

Foreclosure starts, however, are creeping back upwards. Foreclosure starts totaled 86,300 for the month of May, an increase of 9.52 percent from April. Yearly, foreclosure starts remain down by 26.11 percent. Overall delinquency rates remained steady, down a mere 0.01 percent to 5.62 percent in May.

The number of properties that are 30 days or more past due but not yet in foreclosure totaled roughly 2.8 million, an 18,000 property increase from the previous month yet a decline of 204,000 from the previous year.

This comes as no surprise as the majority of at risk properties have already been foreclosed on. Also with the rise in home prices more homes are in an equity position and can therefore be sold without costing the home owner money. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

Foreclosure filings were reported on roughly 110,000 U.S. properties in May, a 5 percent decrease from April, according to RealtyTrac’s latest U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. Foreclosure filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, were down 26 percent year-over-year in May to the lowest level since December 2006.

The report found that one in every 1,199 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.

However, individual states saw monthly increases despite the overall national decline. Statewide, 21 states posted monthly increases in overall activity, with 11 states posting annual increases in foreclosure activity.

“It’s not surprising that some of the states with the longest foreclosure timelines are those with markets still dealing with increasing foreclosure activity even as the country as a whole continues to hit new lows,” said Daren Blomquist, VP at RealtyTrac. “On the other hand, the increase in bank repossessions in some states with shorter foreclosure timelines like California and Oregon demonstrates there is still some pent-up foreclosure activity in those states as well.”

Bank repossessions also fell in May, hitting the lowest level seen since July 2007—an 82-month low. Lenders repossessed 28,373 U.S. properties in May, down 6 percent month-over-month and down 27 percent yearly.

This makes sense. The higher the prices of homes rise the more lenders will put their foreclosed inventory up for sale. The more homes that sell the less are in inventory. For a more detailed look at this subject – please read the article below.

CoreLogic released its National Foreclosure Report, looking at data as of the end of April 2014. The company reported that completed foreclosures in April totaled 46,000, down 0.4 percent from March and down 18 percent year-over-year.

Before the decline in the housing market, completed foreclosures per month totaled 21,000 between 2000 and 2006.

CoreLogic found that foreclosure inventory fell in April as well, down 4.7 percent month-over-month and down 35 percent year-over-year. As of April 2014, foreclosure inventory stood at 694,000, down considerably from 1.1 million in April 2013.

The rate of mortgages that were seriously delinquent was 4.5 percent, the first time delinquency rates have been this low since September 2008, according to CoreLogic. The foreclosure rate also experienced a similar trajectory—the rate of foreclosures is back to November 2008 levels.

“Over the past 12 months, completed foreclosures fell to 599,000, the lowest level since the Great Recession began in 2007. At the current pace of completed foreclosures, and given the current foreclosure inventory, it will take 14 months to move all of the foreclosed inventory through the pipeline,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist for CoreLogic.

The inventory of foreclosed properties has experienced 19 months of year-over-year, double-digit declines, and 30 straight months of overall decline.

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